With the Round 3 Suzuka being postponed to August, the third race of 2021 AUTOBACS SUPER GT Series will be the Round 4 MOTEGI GT 300km RACE held on July 17 (Sat) and 18 (Sun). This will be the first SUPER GT in July and in summer for Twin Ring Motegi. Known as a tough track to the race cars already, how will the temperature and weather in this time of the season will affect the race?　What are the strategies the teams have to take with the race distance returning to the standard 300km from 500km of previous race and with more cars loading heavier success weight?　Totally unexpected can be expected. Who can grab the result they need at the Round 4 to gain advantage in the 2021 title contention?

　TOYOTA GR Supra squad won the season opening round at Okayama dominantly again like last year. The squad didn't have much luck at the Round 2 Fuji and fell short of the win, but that's about what they didn't get as they had 4 cars in top 5 grids including the pole position and the second and third finishes in the race. Toyotas appear to have gained pretty good advantage over the rivals in last 2 races.
　Who, then, deserves a spotlight out of the GR Supra squad at the third race of this season, the Round 4 Motegi?　No.37 KeePer TOM'S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa / Sena Sakaguchi) should come first in the list. As the team as well as Hirakawa admit they are confident on the Motegi track, their speed is undoubted especially after Hirakawa's partner Sakaguchi capturing the pole position at the season opener. 46kg of success weight is not light, but it is not unmanageable either. With the records of first in qualifying and second in the race at last year's Round 4 Motegi, No.38 ZENT GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa / Hiroaki Ishiura) may start showing their full potential at Motegi. Contrastingly, the current point leader and the winner of the season opening race, No.14 ENEOS X PRIME GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima / Kenta Yamashita), could be forced to play conservative to aim for picking up points considering the burden of 70kg success weight (36kg of physical ballast on the car and lowering 2 levels of the fuel flow restrictor). However, the momentum Yamashita has been creating can push the team up to the podium for a 3-straight time. Round 2 pole-sitter No.19 WedsSport ADVAN GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto / Ritomo Miyata) could be a dark horse. If the Yokohama tire works out well in hot race, then the team could well be seeing their second win in the GT500.

　No.17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi / Bertrand Baguette) managed to pull off a win at the Round 2 Fuji, but it's undeniable that they also had luck on their side as they happened to make a pit-stop just before FCY backed with the rivals dropping out from the contest. Hence, it is not exactly a smooth start of the season for the Honda NSX-GT squad. Nevertheless, the squad successfully captured victories at the two races on Motegi track last year, by No.17 car and No.8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri / Nirei Fukuzumi), and also had a better qualifying result than their rivals. They have enough reasons to focus on a win at upcoming round besides Motegi being the home track of Honda.
　Although No.17 car is mandated with a success weight of 52kg for the Round 4, the actual ballast on the car will be 35kg after tightening the fuel flow restrictor by one level. Still, the team should be able to assume a podium finish considering they have won with 46kg on their car at last year's Round 4. No.1 STANLEY NSX-GT (Naoki Yamamoto / Tadasuke Makino) and No.8 car must be keen to cross the finish line first to bring in their first win of the season. After settling for a second place despite starting from the pole position at last year's Round 7 Motegi, No.64 Modulo NSX-GT (Takuya Izawa / Hiroki Otsu) would want to nail the win this time. After all, all five cars of the NSX-GT squad are candidates for the win.

　First two races of this season have been unexpectedly difficult to No.23 MOTUL AUTECH GT-R (Tsugio Matsuda / Ronnie Quintarelli). They had to retire from the race after colliding with another car at the season opening round and exited early at the Round 2 due to an engine problem, resulting in consecutive no-point races. Even among the entire NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT500 fleet, the fifth place at the Round 2 by No.3 CRAFTSPORTS MOTUL GT-R (Kohei Hirate / Katsumasa Chiyo) is the best result they got and no podium so far. Lucky side of the story could be that the interval up to the Round 4 expanded to 2 months by the postponement of Round 3 race. Outside look of the car may not change due to the restriction by the regulations, but the fleet must have worked on the inside like the control unit software of this season's engine and reviewing the data captured. Drivers should also be taking on the Round 4 Motegi with a refreshed mind. The situation is not so bright in terms of points, but, on the other hand, No.23 car as well as No.24 Realize Corporation ADVAN GT-R (Mitsunori Takaboshi / Daiki Sasaki) could become a surprise to the rivals especially when they don't need to think about success weight.

　Which team is the top favorite in the GT300 class at the Round 4 Motegi?　Looking at the car models with a good track record at Motegi, NISSAN GT-R NISMO GT3 and Mercedes AMG GT3 are the first to be called. Although the characteristics and the strong points are different between GT-R GT3 and AMG GT3, huge torque and cornering performance, respectively, both cars are reputed for stably easy to handle and drive, which seems to be an advantage on the track of Motegi. In this context, No.56 Realize Nissan Automobile Technical College GT-R (Kiyoto Fujinami / Joao Paulo de Oliveira), the winner of season opening race and last year's Round 7 Motegi race, and No.65 LEON PYRAMID AMG (Naoya Gamou / Togo Suganami), boasting 3 wins at Motegi in last 4 years, satisfy the requirement. However, their success weights, 72kg and 69kg, are not very helpful for targeting the win. Along with No.60 SYNTIUM LMcorsa GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshimoto / Shunsuke Kohno) with a success weight of 69kg from winning the Round 2 race, they could be shifting their focus to the title and just concentrate on picking up points.
　Besides the carriers of heavy success weight, No.11 GAINER TANAX GT-R (Katsuyuki Hiranaka / Hironobu Yasuda) and No.52 SAITAMATOYOPET GB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida / Kohta Kawaai), potent teams but yet to score a win this season, as well as No.360 RUNUP RIVAUX GT-R (Takayuki Aoki / Yudai Uchida), which showed strong performances at two races held at Motegi last year, 3-time GT300 champion No.4 GOODSMILE HATSUNE MIKU AMG (Nobuteru Taniguchi / Tatsuya Kataoka), and No.61 SUBARU BRZ R&D SPORT (Takuto Iguchi / Hideki Yamauchi) could be considered as victorious candidates.
　No.55 ARTA NSX GT3 (Shinichi Takagi / Ren Sato) and No.96 K-tunes RC F GT3 (Morio Nitta / Hibiki Taira) should not be underestimated either especially since the speed of the rookie drivers have started to dazzle. No.88 JLOC Lamborghini GT3 (Takashi Kogure / Yuya Motojima) and No.10 GAINER TANAX with IMPUL GT-R (Kazuki Hoshino / Keishi Ishikawa) can take up the role of dark horse. Porsches have been successful at Motegi and, in that sense, No.25 HOPPY Porsche (Takamitsu Matsui / Kimiya Sato) must be kept in the attention.

　Round 4 will be the first SUPER GT in July for Twin Ring Motegi. We may see unexpected upsets as there are many unknowns like temperatures. For those who will visit the circuit to watch SUPER GT, please take all the precautions against COVID-19 and enjoy the event. The excitement and thrills are also viewable through the broadcast by J SPORTS on live, recorded program, and on demand, and the SUPER GT Plus, a TV program broadcast via the network of TV Tokyo (all channels offered only in Japan. For overseas, Motorsport.tv distributes qualifying and race live).